There is no writer, so far as we know, who does not judge that this homily is to be ascribed to Saint Maximus. To the highest consensus of writers there is added the fully agreeing authority of manuscript codices and of the editors. From the Vatican library we shall name four concordant codices: 4951, page 21; 1267, page 91; Reginensis 433, page 98 at the back; and another of the same, 125, page 72. It is inscribed thus: On the Birthday of the Lord, a sermon of the blessed Maximus the bishop. The same inscription is exhibited by three Augiensis codices, 12, 16, and 29; the Martinian; likewise Casinensis 106, page 18; and finally Monza E III, sermon 23. The Laurentian codices lack it. It exists in the Turin codex with the title: Likewise also on the Nativity of the Lord, homily 14.
And all the editors reckon it among the Maximian homilies on the Birthday of the Lord: Gymnicus page 14, Galesinius page 92, Combefis volume I page 168, Cumdius volume I page 65, Raynaudus page 197, Margarinus volume VI of the Bibliotheca Maxima of the Fathers, page 6. The sacrament of today's mystery, dearest brethren, as you have always believed and do believe, is the reparation of human salvation, the birth of virtues, the ruin of vices. For today Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom is the fullness of divinity, taking on the weaknesses of our flesh, has been born a new man. Today shone forth that second Adam, not the inhabitant, but the lord of paradise, whom the beauty of the forbidden tree may not beguile, whom the serpent may not deceive, whom the woman may not seduce.
Today light has arisen in the darkness. Today that which heaven and the heaven of heavens rejoiced to possess, the world, while it knew it not, has received. For not as some temporal being, or one who did not exist before, did he suddenly emerge to us from a woman; but he who was always God with the Father, and always reigned, willed to appear to mortals through a virgin by a new mystery: a new man indeed, but the everlasting Lord; a new Christ, but the king of all the ages. He himself, born at the end of the ages from Mary, is the one who before all ages, as Only-begotten, proceeded from the Father. This is he foretold by the patriarchs, proclaimed by the prophets, announced by the angels, approved by the apostles. Of one and the same you read:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh (John 1). Rejoice therefore now and exult toward your God, O heathenism at last converted. You have received the gift which Abraham rejoiced to have seen in the spirit; you have merited through Christ what the chosen race of the Hebrews could not once merit; for Israel, fearing and trembling, marveled, as we read, that Moses, the prince of the people, hidden in the cloud, alone spoke with the Lord on the summit of the highest mountain (Exodus 19). But to you Christ was so born, and granted himself to us with such condescension, that he might speak to all and be seen by all. Whoever of the people then approached that mount Sinai was punished with instant destruction;
but to this mountain, who has today been born to the world, whoever does not approach shall die. And then indeed one people was instructed unto faith; but now all nations are called unto life. Our venerable fathers saw innumerable and great marvels. Heaven bedewed for them angelic food; the hardest rock supplied sweet draughts (Exodus 17 and 19); the Jordan turned back its perpetual course to its source; the strongest walls of the enemies collapsed at the blast of the trumpets; the sun too, lingering in heaven, granted a longer day to the triumphing people (Joshua 3, 6, and 10).
But this was granted to no former ages to see: that the Only-begotten of the Most High, whom the trembling powers of the archangels receive, should show himself a man to men, and should transform the flesh which he assumed from man into God. Embrace therefore the condescension of eternal majesty, and do not scrutinize the hidden will of your God: because Christ was indeed born for all, but he gives salvation to the faithful. But if, through the frailty of your senses, it seems to you less worthy to believe that the Son of God was born of a woman, consider that a virgin gave birth. If perhaps the cloths in which he was wrapped seem mean to you, admire the angels praising and the multitude of the heavenly host.
If you despise the manger in which the infant lay, lift up your eyes for a moment, and behold the new star in heaven proclaiming to the world the Lord's nativity. If you count these things lowly, believe the wondrous ones. If you argue about those things that belong to His humility, venerate those that are exalted and heavenly. For by the same reporters and by the same authors you have learned concerning the Lord and Saviour both what is humble and what is glorious; the holy Gospels have set forth for you all things that pertained to the mystery of your salvation. You have in them wherewith to believe that the Lord Jesus was born a man, and to be unable to doubt that He is also God.